


interlocked

by aebirdie



Series: sad spideytorch [1]
Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Spider-Man (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst with a sad ending, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, time switches, very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 14:54:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20547992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aebirdie/pseuds/aebirdie
Summary: 2:39 PMHey Johnny, it’s Peter. Got your voicemail, so I’m really hoping you pick up.Listen. Me and the kid are in serious doo-doo with the Rhino right now, so I was wondering if you could come and help out? And then we could go up to our spot and eat pizza, from Ray’s, but the good one.Shit!Fuck, Johnny, call me back, okay? I need you.





	interlocked

There was a before, and an after, in life. Johnny’s used to be the crash, when he became the teenage superhero, but then it was those two years in the Negative Zone, with a set before and after. A time he was carefree, and a time he was not, with a life-altering change in the middle. A defined pattern.

He didn’t think this would become the new after. That not picking up the phone would cost him this much, that he’d have to hold Spider-Man in his arms as they looked at the mess the Rhino had left.

It wasn’t supposed to end, not like this. There wasn’t supposed to be a new before and after.

_6:57 AM_

Peter was in his bed, but it seemed that Peter was always there, hogging the blankets and pressing his impossibly cold feet into Johnny’s calves. He was still sleeping, breathing softly—

_3:01 PM_

Oh, God, Peter wasn’t breathing, he wasn’t _breathing_ and the other Spider-Man was crying and—

_6:58 AM_

—and then Peter snored, and Johnny considered smothering him with a pillow. God, Peter was a loud snorer. Annoying, it was, to wake up next to the beautiful guy and it turns out he needs some sort of surgery to fix his snoring issue. That he won’t get.

Peter’s arm extended in his sleep and grazed against Johnny’s chest, over his heart, but his hand didn’t fall. Probably a spider thing.

_3:03 PM_

It took Johnny a few moments to remember how to do CPR, how to break Peter’s ribs to try and bring him back to life. He interlocked his fingers and placed his hands over Peter’s heart, and he tried to not think about waking up next to Peter, think about how loud Peter snored, how cold his feet were, how he had reached out to Johnny and placed his hand over Johnny’s own heart, how the two were the same, really, except Johnny was very, very alive and Peter was gone.

_6:59 AM_

“Peter,” Johnny whispered, entranced as the light coming in from the window traced Peter’s cheekbones. Peter hummed sleepily and moved closer to Johnny, his hand falling as he turned, back now towards Johnny’s chest, and Johnny wrapped his arms around Peter, smelling his hair, still messy from his mask.

“Peter,” Johnny whispered again, and Peter intertwined his fingers with Johnny’s.

“What, I can’t sleep?” Peter grumbled.

_3:04 PM_

He heard Peter’s ribs crack, and for a moment, it sounded like Peter sighed, like he breathed on his own. Like he was back.

Johnny gripped his shoulders desperately, watching Peter’s body slump in his arms. He set Peter down gently and intertwined his fingers again, trying to bring Peter back.

_7:00 AM_

“Pete, everyone’s gonna get up,” Johnny whined. “C’mon, Web Head.”

“What, trying to get rid of me so easily?” Peter asked, and Valeria began to cry in her room. They listened silently as Sue and Reed and Ben got up, the house alive with talking and footsteps and power.

“Where’s my mask?” Peter sighed, eyes on the door.

_3:05 PM_

Johnny took off Peter’s mask so he could force air down Peter’s throat, hoping that that was the reason Peter wasn’t coming back.

_7:02 AM_

“I don’t like sneaking around, you know,” Peter told Johnny. “I’ve got morals. Can’t treat me like any of these other girls.”

“You know you’re my number one, baby,” Johnny teased, smacking Peter’s butt. Peter yelped. “Anyways, Ben’s convinced that we’re dating, and I hate the way he gets. Rather avoid it.”

Peter opened the window and climbed out, pausing before he swung away. “What if we were?” Peter asked. Johnny could do nothing but blink and stand there with his mouth open for a few moments.

_3:07 PM_

Johnny breathed into Peter’s mouth again, stopping to breathe himself, before starting again. The other Spider-Man sat in the middle of the street, head in his hands, curled up defensively. He heard crying, and he realized that it was him who was crying, in the middle off the street, the boy he loves dead on the pavement.

_7:03 AM_

“Never mind,”” Peter said hurriedly. “I didn’t mean to—”

“I have feelings for you,” Johnny blurted out. “Like, please-wake-up-in-my-bed-every-morning-forever feelings.”

“Sick,” Peter said. “So, I was thinking, Johnny, you and me. Let’s do something about that.”

_3:08 PM_

“C’mon, Web Head,” Johnny whispered. “It’s supposed to be you and me, right? You and me, let’s do something about that. Your words.”

There was supposed to be a rhythm, to CPR, but Johnny couldn’t remember the song and all he could think about was Peter, dead.

_7:07 AM_

“Johnny, say something,” Peter begged.

“You sure you like me?” Johnny asked nervously. He wasn’t completely sure this wasn’t some kind of joke. Like on a prank show. Or something.

“Yeah,” Peter said, huffing, and Johnny knew he was rolling his eyes, and Johnny also knew he was completely gone for Peter, completely lost in him. “Why wouldn’t I like you?”

_3:10 PM_

“Why won’t you stay with me, Pete, c’mon, stay with me,” Johnny begged. “Please, I need you, I fucking need you.”

_7:08 AM_

“I need you, Johnny,” Peter said, and Johnny raised his eyebrows in interest. “Not like that, doof. Like, sometimes, when you aren’t around, I go looking for you, just to make sure you’re still breathing. Like, I need to see you before I go to sleep, so I know you’re okay. And stuff.”

“Peter—”

“Please don’t die on me again, Flame Brain,” Peter said. “I don’t think I can handle it.”

“I won’t,” Johnny said, stepping closer to the window. “But you can’t die either, okay? Promise me.”

Peter smiled underneath his mark, cheeks moving the fabric. “I promise.”

_3:12_

“You _promised_, Pete,” Johnny sobbed, his CPR rhythms erratic as he cried. “Please, I need you, I need you, I need you. Come back to me.”

Peter doesn’t say anything, and Johnny pushes his mask up more. Peter’s eyes are open, but he’s still warm. Johnny can bring him back. He can come back.

_7:08 AM_

Before Johnny can wimp out, he leans and lifts up the bottom half of Peter’s mask, pecking Peter on the lips, and—

_3:13 PM_

He breathes into Peter’s mouth again, and Peter’s chest rises and falls, but it doesn’t stay. He doesn’t let himself think about this morning.

_7:08 AM_

—then Peter’s leaning in and kissing Johnny properly, and Johnny’s realizing that he’s wanted to be kissed like this all his life. Maybe it’s the guy. Maybe it’s the kiss. Maybe it’s the fact that Johnny used to own a Spider-Man poster.

Maybe it’s all three. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s _Peter_, and he’s with Johnny, in the after and the before, and that Peter needs him and makes sure that he’s alive.

Maybe it’s everything. Maybe it’s nothing. All Johnny knows is that he doesn’t want Peter to leave, because, maybe, he needs Peter too, in a check-in-to-make-sure-you’re-alive sort of way. In a love sort of way.

“Flame on, huh?” Peter said, pulling his mask down and jumping off the Baxter Building, swinging home.

_3:15 PM_

“I have an idea,” says the other Spider-Man, with the admittedly cooler suit. “I’ve got this thing, I can do? But I was thinking, that maybe—”

“Do it,” Johnny said hoarsely.

_9:31 AM_

“Yeah, kid’s got some crazy powers,” Peter said through the phone. “He’s got a venom strike or something? Wasn’t really listening when Stark explained it.”

“He’s way cooler than you,” Johnny teased, watching as they swung on the news, Peter’s phone to his ear.

“I think I have to trademark Spider-Man,” Peter complained. “Everyone keeps stealing it.”

“You’re just mad you’re the lesser of two Spider-Mans.”

“You’re just mad you don’t have spider powers so you can steal my name too, Johnny.”

_3:16 PM_

The electricity thing didn’t work, even though Peter’s body raised halfway from the ground, like Peter was trying to come back to the land of the living, trying to keep his promise.

More people arrived, heroes slipping though the police barricade to stand watch over the crumpled body of Spider-Man. Johnny pulled off Peter’s mask and bent down to smell his crappy shampoo, run his fingers through Peter’s mask hair, interlock his fingers with Peter’s. Say something to him, before Peter grew cold.

_10:19 AM_

“Is that Peter on the news?” Sue asked, stealing half of Johnny’s bagel. He glared at her.

“Yeah, training his protégé,” Johnny grumbled, holding his plate away from Sue’s reaching arms.

“Overheard a bit of your conversation with him this morning,” Sue said airily, turning invisible. Johnny watched as his breakfast disappeared and sighed. It sucked to have an invisible sister sometimes. She reappeared. “I’m happy for you, bro. Just keep the door open, yeah?”

“I’m not a teenager anymore, Sue,” Johnny said, rolling his eyes, and she ruffled his hair.

“Whatever you say.”

_3:19 PM_

The younger Spider-Man was clinging to Johnny, sitting next to him on the ground, as Johnny cradled Peter’s head in his lap, asking God for answers when there were none. He let the kid use him as a crutch, both sitting on the pavement as others walked around them.

Johnny didn’t let go of Peter, even when Sue said _Let’s go home, little brother_. He couldn’t go home, because Peter wasn’t going to stop by afterwards to make sure that Johnny was alive. Because Peter wasn’t going to climb through his window and fall asleep and snore. Because Peter promised and then stopped breathing.

“Let’s go home, Johnny,” Sue said again, and then Firestar picked up Peter’s body, so gingerly he may have been a glass sculpture. Angelina had been one of his closest friends, Johnny remembered.

_Two Weeks Ago_  
11:08 AM

Peter: _Invited Ang to lunch with us you’ll love her!!!!_

_3:21 PM_

Bobby was there, but Bobby was everywhere, and he was crying, tears turning into ice on his face, and then Firestar began to wail, sound loud as a foghorn, grief fresh as a bullet wound, and then Felicia was taking Peter’s weight from her so that Angelina could fall. No one paid her any mind, even though the police had been looking for her for two weeks and here she was, holding Peter close.

“His eyes,” Johnny rasped, voice dry and cracked. “Close his eyes.”

Daredevil did it, closed Peter’s eyes. Johnny let Sue lead him home.

_2:39 PM_

_Hey Johnny, it’s Peter. Got your voicemail, so I’m really hoping you pick up._

_Listen. Me and the kid are in serious doo-doo with the Rhino right now, so I was wondering if you could come and help out? And then we could go up to our spot and eat pizza, from Ray’s, but the good one._

_Shit!_

_Fuck, Johnny, call me back, okay? I need you._


End file.
